Books ref to Cawston

Books with reference to Cawston:

*In Heritage Centre

*A Fearful Freedom By Robert Hammond:Survival story of Jim Wright behind the lines in Japanese occupied territory 1941-1945.Related Link: War Times*A Short History of a Norfolk Village by John Kett 1993.

*Caustoniana: or twelve discoures addressed to the inhabitants of Cawston by Thomas Bowman

*Cawston Past and Present. Cawston School Project. (1958)

*Norfolk Fair the county magazine - Radio Norfolk - Village Voice from Cawston May 1981.

Church History leaflets obtainable from the Church.*History Today, Vol 36 (April 1986) A Norfolk Village 1595-1605 by Susan Dwyer Amussen.

*Notes on the Church of St. Agnes 1953 by the Rev E. F. W. Ames Rector of Cawston 1946 - 1964.

*Parish Plan 2010.

*St. Agnes Church - Notes on the history of the Church Written by John Kett, illustrations by Anthony B. Butler

*St. Agnes', Church. "Guide" The following people helped in compiling this guide:Felicity Wilkins, John Kett, Michael Stallard, Peter Walder, John Whiting, Bob Hendon.*Centenary of Cawston Voluntary School 1871-1971. Looking back into the past.*Echoes of the Good & Fallen - Angels De Cawston - Norfolk.

*Parish MagazinesPublished every month.

*Red Jungle by John Cross, D.C.M -Three British Survivors of a radio party who met up with Jim Wright, See A Fearful Freedom by Robert Hammond above.The Squires of Heydon Hall - Jane Preston

*Walter Rye, An Account of the Church and Parish of Cawston (1898).Only 100 Printed.

*Within These Ancient Walls. Discovering St. Agnes’ Church by Susie Timms.

*Yesterday's Children -Tales of Cawston's Past by John Kett. (1980)

Cawston inLiterature:

“Moab is my Washpot” (1999) is a autobiographical novel written by Stephen Fry(1957) who once attended Cawston Primary School. In this novel he recalls Cawston school. His eloquence in describing his early life at Cawston school in MS. Medlar’s class is beautifully written and a joy to read.

Church expert and clerical mystery writer Kate Charles (b 1950) sets her “Evil Angels Among Them (1995) in the fictional village of “Walston”. This word is based on two of her favourite churches, Salle and Cawston. Her story, a clerical mystery is set around the church of ‘St. Michael and All Angels’ which in fact is Cawston Church.In her book she describes the spectacular angel roof and the medieval painting over the chancel arch. Not far from the church is ‘Walston Manor’ and the ‘Queens Head’ pub which features Anne Boleyn on its sign.Kate Charles writes in her book, “this is not the sort of church one might expect to find in a small rather undistinguished Norfolk village like Walston; its size bespoke past glories of which scarcely a trace remained. Built in the Perpendicular style, its exterior, crowned by a massive square tower, was a marvel of flushwork in Norfolk flint, and the interior, with its vast expanses of clear glass in the side aisles and the deep clerestory, was irradiated with the sort of light that is only found in East Anglia, as the sky had somehow found a way to invade the church.”Brian Cooper’s Norfolk novels all have something special about them. He created “Salleston” (Salle and Cawston) in his novel “Covenat with Death” (1994). The mystery is about the legendary theft of a parapet and pinnacles of Cawston Churchtower.Michael Yaxley,Bonn, July 2006

Recommended Reading:

“Village School” by Miss Read.

Miss Read has become very popular for their humorous and vivid depictions of English rural life. In “Village School” Miss Read (in real life Ms. Dora Saint), a retired school teacher, describes the school year starting with the bitterly cold Christmas term that causes havoc with the school's outdated heating system, up to the hot summer days when school finishes. In her novel Miss Read describes a two-class school in the 1950’s where she is head mistress. She describes everyday life of the inhabitants of the sleepy village of Fairacre in the 1950’s with humour and irony.

Miss Read also wrote “Village Affairs” which is about the people of Fairacre who are worried about the possible closure of the village school. Miss Read loves the countryside and again in this book writes humorously about village life.

Michael Yaxley

Other interesting books at the Heritage Centre:

*A Year Go By - by Jojn Kett.*National Service Guide Book 1939.*Rations A very Peculiar History With No added butter.*Covenant With Death by Brian Cooper.